9 Reasons to Choose Golang for your Next Web Application

There may be various reasons for adopting a new programming language accompanied by a lively discussion. Why not just stick with the old reliable PHP or Java? Critics and advocates of each language have a lot of convincing arguments for and against using each of them. Yet the main goal remains: to find the right tool for the job at hand.

When our developers started mastering Golang, it wasn’t because of a new modern trend or because they suddenly decided to quit PHP. They simply faced the tasks for which Go was a better fit due to its simplicity, speed, concurrency and high performance. So this post is not about which programming language is better, but rather about why more and more people pick Golang for their projects and how you can use it to get a quality product with a neat secure code.

ONE. Golang is open-source but backed up by a large corporation

The language was created at Google by Rob Pike, Robert Griesemer, and Ken Thompson and then released as an open-source project in 2009. It’s still growing rapidly and now has around 90,000 repositories. In August 2015, Go 1.5 was released with numerous improvements to it. Golang was designed by Google primarily for the cloud to meet their complex development needs and naturally it never lacked financial support. Go can be used for development of different kinds of software starting with cloud and systems programming and extending to game server development and handling text-processing problems.

TWO. Many big companies used it for their projects including:

Google

Dropbox

Soundcloud

Docker

Cloudflare

BBC

THREE. It’s fast:

to learn

to develop in

to compile

to deploy

to run

As many Gophers point out, Golang has the speed of a compiled language, but the feel of an interpreted language. So you can write the code fast, and even faster compilation speeds allow for a rapid feedback style. Speedy development means saving time and money, so this is obviously the most important benefit for someone with a tight budget.

FOUR. Go is a modern language

Modern tasks require modern solutions. Golang was created with cloud computing in mind, which will arguably define the future of the tech world. Moreover, it was designed considering the possibilities opened by modern hardware architectures and the needs of our age computing problems.

FIVE. Golang is simple

Go has clean syntax with text-based workflow, minimalistic design, and clear language specification. Thus, you can learn a language and become productive real fast. This simplicity makes maintainability of code less expensive and the development process faster.

SIX. It’s concurrent

The reason why many developers adopt Golang is its built-in concurrency, which enables you to carry out many processes at the same time. Concurrency is happening via channels and goroutines while garbage collector provides principal support for such execution. Also, in Go concurrency is happening with the static execution speed of C or C++. This is not possible in many back-end languages, in which building process is done in a sequence.

SEVEN. Rapid development and growing community

Golang is developing rapidly thanks to its growing community. Although it’s a relatively new language, it already has lots of good documentation. The language is easy for a developer to learn and show good results real soon, which is, of course, quite motivating. Also, you can find a lot of code on Github with numerous contributors adding to it every day. Many programmers claim that you can easily pick up the language even without taking Go Tour.

EIGHT. Good cross-platform support

Golang was created to be usable across multiple platforms. It has plenty of built-in language features that enable easy cross-platform development. First of all, you need to be aware of what you already have at your disposal built into the language in a standard library. Many things that might seem tedious and complicated to handle across different platforms are already there for your taking. Another indisputable advantage is the support for cross compilation with lots of tutorials and instructions on how to do it best.

NINE. Go is safe

In Go, every variable must have a type associated with it, so a developer has to be meticulous and can’t skip details which might then lead to bugs. As a result, you get a neat safe code and don’t have to spend as much time and money on searching for and fixing bugs as in many dynamic languages. The language also requires a developer to dedicate much attention to dealing with errors because of the strict compiler, which again leads to a secure code. Another useful safety feature is Garbage collector, which C++ lacks, for example. And built-in testing facilitates the process of testing your code.

In any case, your choice of a programming language should be predetermined by your development and business goals. We hope that this short guide will help you to decide whether Go is worth a go. If you still have any questions, our Golang experts will be happy to provide you with necessary information and help you weigh up all the pros and cons.

1 COMMENTS

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